Bangladesh has called for early implementation of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) Free Trade Agreement (FTA) by finalising the legal instruments relating to it.
Addressing the Ministerial Meeting (MM) of the grouping in Bangkok through virtual mode yesterday, Foreign Minister Dr A K Abdul Momen reiterated Bangladesh’s commitment to the BIMSTEC process and emphasised that BIMSTEC member states need to work together to realise the huge untapped potentials of the region.
As the Lead Country for cooperation in Trade, Investment and Development sector, Dr. Momen outlined Bangladesh’s effort to enhance investment and trade relations across the platform.
The meeting approved the ‘Rules of Procedure’ for all the BIMSTEC mechanisms, including several administrative and financial matters of the BIMSTEC Secretariat for adoption at the Sixth BIMSTEC Summit proposed to be held later this year.
The Meeting approved the draft text of the ‘Agreement on Maritime Transport Cooperation’ as well as the ‘BIMSTEC Bangkok Vision 2030’.
The inclusion of Blue Economy, Mountain Economy and Poverty Alleviation under the purview of the reconstituted sectors/subsectors of BIMSTEC cooperation was approved by the meeting. The cooperation in the Blue Economy will be led by Bangladesh.
The joint statement issued at the end of the MM elaborated upon actions to be taken in different areas of cooperation to promote active collaborations in matters of mutual interests in the economic, social, technical, cultural and scientific fields to build a prosperous, resilient and result-oriented BIMSTEC.
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